Sermon Central
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So Live In Obedience To The Word Series
Contributed by Bruce Rzengota on Feb 8, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: Where we set the bar determines how far we will rise.
So live in Obedience to the Word
Deut 10:12-13
January 15, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
Agree/Disagree:
Determining where you stand.
Agree/Disagree:
Football is a cool game.
Agree/Disagree:
Walking in the rain is something couples should try.
Agree/Disagree:
Following Jesus is worth it.
Agree/Disagree:
Jesus' commands are not burdensome, and the life Jesus offers is a "winning" one that others desire because they are seeing it in me.
14 "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. NIV
16Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven. AMP
Agree/Disagree:
Each of the fruit of the spirit is more evident in my life this year than last year.
(love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control)
The deeds of the flesh are serious failings, God intends that they not be in my life and each has become less and less evident in me during this past hear.
(The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like).
Agree Disagree:
I am being so transformed that when my life bumps into the messiness of the world that Jesus slops out.
Agree Disagree:
Life's Too Short so live in Obedience to the Word
Moses, knowing his is soon to die, delivers his second great challenge to the people of God in Deuteronomy. This one begins in Deut 10.
Deut 10:12-13
12 And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the Lord's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
Deut 11
1 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today -- to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul -- 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow -- to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him -- 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: . . . 25 No man will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse -- 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you . . . .
I. Living in Obedience will mean remembering God's expectation for us is much higher.
Where you set the bar matters. Setting the bar to low leads to mediocrity in our walk with God.
A. Agree/Disagree: God expects me to be perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NIV)
48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (AMP)
48You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete [a]maturity of godliness in mind and character,[b]having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 (NASB)
48 Therefore [a]you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Footnotes: a. Matthew 5:48 Lit you shall be
B. Agree/Disagree: God expects that I will not keep sinning.
1 Peter 1:16 (NIV)
16 for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."[a]
Footnotes: a. 1 Peter 1:16 Lev. 11:44,45; 19:2
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
